Intech Investment Management LLC Acquires 20,129 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 572.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,647 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,129 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC owned about 0.08% of Acuity Brands worth $6,908,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 32.8% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,042 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $7,447,000 after buying an additional 6,679 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 9,973 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,746,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 26.8% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,669 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $735,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $251,000. Finally, Lingohr Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 65.6% during the third quarter. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH now owns 4,815 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,325,000 after purchasing an additional 1,907 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.1 %

AYI opened at $264.33 on Wednesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The company has a market capitalization of $8.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $309.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $303.22.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Profile

Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch.